American Aircraft Maintenance Firm Involved in Latin American Countries Bribes. Now They'll Pay $14

No doubt about it, they admitted it. Now good luck finding the pople who accepted the bribes in those countries. According to me, whoever accepts bribes is guilty too.

Dallas Airmotive Inc., a provider of aircraft engine maintenance, repair and overhaul services based in Grapevine, Texas, has admitted to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and agreed to pay a $14 million criminal penalty to resolve charges that it bribed Latin American government officials in order to secure lucrative government contracts.

According to Dallas Airmotive’s detailed admissions in the statement of facts accompanying the deferred prosecution agreement, between 2008 and 2012, the company bribed officials of the Brazilian Air Force, the Peruvian Air Force, the Office of the Governor of the Brazilian State of Roraima, and the Office of the Governor of the San Juan Province in Argentina. Dallas Airmotive used various methods to convey the bribe payments, including by entering into agreements with front companies affiliated with foreign officials, making payments to third-party representatives with the understanding that funds would be directed to foreign officials, and directly providing things of value, such as paid vacations, to foreign officials.

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a reply to: Trueman

Unfortunately, doing business in most of the world's second and third-rate countries involves bribes. It is a commonly accepted business process. In the US it is hidden in far more sophisticated ways. Such practices are not confined by ideological standards across governments or politics. It is merely a fact of human nature that frequently gets out of hand with public and private monies.

An honest perspective would have that the US as a whole across the entirety of its business services to be less guilty of such practices than other countries where virtually everyone with a bit of power from the traffic cop to a low-level functionaries in local or higher government wants a little extra for doing/not doing their job.

“We regret that those standards were breached by a limited number of third-party agents and employees of Dallas Airmotive's business in South America from 2008-2012. These individuals are no longer with the company” and the company's Brazil and South American sales team are operating under new leadership.

Fire a few scapegoats and pay a fine(bribe) to the US justice system, problem solved. I guess it's only wrong if you get caught and even then you have the ability to buy your way out. How does this not equate to what our governments takes part in on a daily basis? Foreign policy blackmailing and strong arm tactics, they pretty much wrote the book!

The OECD study - based on analysis of data emerging from all foreign bribery enforcement actions concluded since the introduction of its own Anti-Bribery Convention in 1999 - also found that most bribes are paid in advanced countries instead of emerging markets.

The OECD report cast doubts over the frequent corporate defense to graft claims that senior executives were unaware of the bungs.

Most international bribes are paid by large companies, usually with the knowledge of senior management.

The report defined a large company as one with more than 250 employees. It added:

In 41% of cases management-level employees paid or authorized the bribe, whereas the company CEO was involved in 12% of cases.

The OECD found that the majority of bribes it studied were paid by companies to governments or state-owned enterprises, in order to secure contracts.

Bribes are generally paid to win contracts from state-owned or controlled companies in advanced economies, rather than in the developing world, and most bribe payers and takers are from wealthy countries.

The majority of cases it found occurred in four industries: resources extraction, construction, transport and IT.

Want to know which company gave bribes? Look for the ones working there, it's basically mandatory to do so in this part of the world. Honestly the blame lies with the officials, when you know bribery is the only way to get the contract you do what you must. It will not change until the rules over there change.